Caution: Man at Work

We are a three-county family. Kylie spends her time in Davis County, Landon spends his days in Utah County, and once in awhile, if we're really lucky, we get to meet in the middle: Salt Lake County. Sometimes this can be a challenge. For example, if Landon needs a ride home because he missed the bus, it's not a quick jaunt down the road. It's a 75 minute drive there from Farmington and 40 minutes back to West Jordan. The weather sometimes shocks us. Kylie will come home drenched from a massive snow storm that knocked out the power grid, and Landon will have heard nothing about it and never seen so much as one flake. We thought when they announced the new area code that it might now be long-distance to call each other, but luckily the change covers precisely the three counties that make up our lives. But possibly the biggest challenge comes from the separation of our three lives. Landon has a group of Geology friends that Kylie has never laid eyes on. Kylie has client meetings in places Landon has never even heard of. It's difficult to be social and make friends when we live so far from all of the people we spend the majority of our time with.
This weekend, we set off for a writer's conference at BYU. While in Provo, we decided to take advantage of the situation and Landon gave Kylie a tour of his life! It was fabulous to feel connected, at least minimally, for the afternoon. Following are a few fascinating tidbits from Landon's place of work, which Kylie hadn't seen in the almost 9 months he has worked there.

This is the lab he works in as a research assistant. Room CO30

This is where he sits to weigh out rock samples that have been ground to dust.

You'll have to ask Landon what this is...I can't remember.

This is his supply closest - his boss's name is Dr. Ritter.

This is something called a "Mass Spectrometer," which sounds sufficiently sciency and super intelligent for me to safely say my husband is a genius...

He has been working on a research project involving ancient climate changes and weather patterns. I wish I knew more about it, but he seems to love it. We've been very fortunate to find these amazing jobs for Landon where he gets to use the knowledge he is gaining in school in real-life situations. We're hoping that'll give him an edge in the erroding job market when he graduates in a year. It is also helping him to refine his interests and decide what he wants to pursue in grad school and in his career. I'm very proud of him and all his accomplishments! It was great to be part of his life for a day.

National spoil your wife day.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! We hope everyone was treated as well as we were!
We like to keep it simple at our house - just a nice relaxing day spent with each other. It was fun to be able to have a long weekend away from work and school, and fun to reflect on the same day, two years ago, when Landon proposed!

Landon made a special breakfast. And those cookies? A-maz-ing. He always brings home some kind of treat. It's getting to be a fun tradition. And yes, he has a book on his plate. We know, it doesn't seem romantic, but we really are nerds.

This is not a great picture, but the flowers were so beautiful!

We have been reflecting a lot lately on how grateful we are. We have been blessed with each other, a ridiculously happy marriage, the gospel, wonderful and caring families, a job that supports us both, scholarships for Landon, good health, good friends, a nice place to live, a car that runs, hot running water (as Landon pointed out), and so many options and hopes for our future. It's a scary time in the world, and sometimes it stresses us out - but with so many blessings, how can we complain?

Happy Birthday Dear Me!

Yesterday I turned 23.
It was kind of a normal day. I got up early and sent Landon out the door, went to work all day, and came home. It's weird how birthdays change as you get older. Luckily, Landon made it a special day after all!
He told me that we were going somewhere for a surprise and that I had to be home by 6:30. We left the house around 6:45 and drove around for awhile...he couldn't find where we were supposed to be going. I calmly advised that he call his family and ask them to look up the address. He stopped the car and called everyone we knew, but no one was home to help.
Dejected, he came back to the car and told me that we would just have to go back home and look it up. He apologized about 60 times. We made it back to our apartment, he opened the door and pushed me inside, and I found:
Ta-Dah! I surprise party just for me! Woo hoo! I've never had a surprise party before. The party came complete with My family and friends,Lots of generous presents and a birthday crown...

Party chip cake and Arthur plates! (two of my favorite things in the world)

And balloons! (I guess Landon didn't look at the packaging close enough - We laughed hard about this)

Thanks everyone, for making it a special day. It's nice to know there are people who love me unconditionally and are willing to hide in my house, put up decorations and jump out and yell surprise. It's always nice to feel appreciated. And thanks to everyone for all the wonderful gifts. I can't wait to read my books, watch my movies, have a picnic with our new basket, wear my new clothes (actually, I'm wearing them today - thanks Mom and Landon!), and hang up the picture my parents gave me. I love you all!

Hi, I'm a Mac.

Four years and two months ago...Kylie brought forth into her collection a new computer, a Mac computer. She converted from a PC why? Well, because the Mac was cute and little, why else? The iBook G4 served her well through thick and thin, through a major/minor swap, many projects and presentations, one national contest (honorable mention baby!) and two college graduations. Then it was passed on to Landon.

Unfortunately, after a year, the G4 and Landon had a few fights. Let's face it, 4 years is a lot to ask from any computer, especially a laptop. And when Landon spilled a little water and the arrow keys ceased to work, we decided it was time for an upgrade. Without further ado, introducing...
Our new MacBook! You can tell how excited Landon is. It's so shiny. And it was super fun to walk into the Mac store and take up all the sales peoples' time and feel like we were rich. We've never actually spent money at a certified Apple dealer before, although we've been there many times. We've already had some fun with the new computer:

Landon took it to school today, and we'll be all set after we install Office and find a case for it. Thank you, President Obama, for our happy Pell Grant check, allowing Landon to finally have a computer that is fully functional. Here's to four more years of being diehard Mac people! Don't worry, we're keeping the G4 for Kylie's photography. She's very happy to have it back (no laptops were harmed in the making of this post).